Former President Donald Trump owes the U.S. Secret Service nearly $584,000 for air travel, according to a recent filing with the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
Trump, the presumptive GOP nominee for November’s presidential election, has seen his finances under increased scrutiny in recent weeks following the $454 million judgment in his New York civil fraud case. The former president, alongside his two adult sons and others associated with The Trump Organization, were found liable of fraud by New York State Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron for inflating the value of Trump’s properties and net worth on forms to lenders.
The former president’s reelection committee, Donald J. Trump for President 2024, submitted an FEC form on Wednesday regarding the campaign’s finances for the month of February. According to the form regarding Trump’s “debts and obligations,” he owes the Secret Service $583,955.29 for air travel.
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The document also lists refund amounts that Trump’s team owes ABC News and The New York Times for “press plane billing.” In total, the former president owes the news organizations $4,824.71.
According to an FEC filing regarding Trump’s campaign finances for the last quarter of 2023, which was also submitted by the committee on Wednesday, the former president owed the Secret Service $321,559.44 for air-travel expenses as of December 31. He owed ABC News and the Times the same amounts in December as he owed them in February.
Newsweek reached out to the U.S. Secret Service via email on Thursday for additional information. An email was also sent to Trump’s campaign for comment.
The former president has maintained that the accusations in the civil suit brought against him by New York Attorney General Letitia James are false, and has claimed that his properties are worth much more than what Engoron concluded in his ruling after a weeks-long trial in the fall.
His defense has also said that it is “a practical impossibility” for Trump to post his $454 million judgment before a Monday deadline. If the former president fails to secure the total amount in time, James’ office will be allowed to start enforcing the judgment by potentially seizing some of his assets and properties.
In order to match the bond, Trump can either post the total amount in cash or a mixture of cash and securities he collects from entities who would be on the hook to pay the nearly half billion-dollar judgment.
Trump said in a deposition last spring that his company had “in excess $400 million in cash,” and that it was going up “very substantially every month.” As of mid-March, Forbes estimated Trump’s net worth at $2.6 billion. The bulk of his assets, however, are in real estate.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.